Chapter 9: Extinction

Some good overviews of the current concerns over species extinction can be found in Pimm, S.L., Jones, H.L., and Diamond, J. "On the risk of evolution," American Naturalist, 132 (6) 757-785, 1988; Simberloff, D.S., "Are We on the Verge of a Mass Extinction in Tropical Rainforests?" in D.K. Elliot, ed. Dynamics of Extinction, New York: Wiley 1986; Wilson, E.O. "The current state of biological diversity." In BioDiversity, Wilson, E.O. and Peter, F.M., eds. National Academy Press, Washington D.C. 1988; Wilson, E.O. "Threats to Biodiversity," Scientific American, Sept, 1989; Wilson, E.O. "Wildlife-Legions of the Doomed," Time Magazine, 1991; Wilson, E.O., The Diversity of Life, Belknap Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1992.

T.C. Whitmore ("Tropical Forest Disturbance, Disappearance, and Species Loss," Tropical Forest Remnants: Ecology, Management, and Conservation of Fragmented Communities, W.F. Laurance and R.O. Bierregaard, Jr, Eds., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997) notes that while there is little evidence of the mass extinctions predicted by the species-area curve, extinction probably has a time lag so species loss from habitat destruction in the past is not yet apparent.

Comparing the occurrence of bird species in isolated forest fragments with the original avifauna Renjifo, L.M. ("Composition Changes in a Subandean Avifauna after Long-Term Forest Fragmentation." Conservation Biology, Pages 1124-1139. Vol. 13, No. 5, October 1999) found a reduction in diversity after fragmentation.

Suplee, C. reported the findings of the IUCN that roughly 12% of the world's flora can be classified as being threatened with extinction ("One in Eight Plants in Global Study Threatened," The Washington Post, 4/8/98).

In their The Theory of Island Biogeography (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1967) R.H. MacArthur and E.O. Wilson discuss the geographic distribution and number of species of species on islands of varying sizes and vegetation types.

Mass extinctions are defined in Sepkoski, J.J. "Mass extinctions in the Phanaerozoic oceans: A review," Geological Society America, Special Paper 190, 1982, and Ward, P.D., On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions, New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1992 and further explored in Raup, D., The Nemesis Affair, New York: W.W. Norton, 1986 and Martin, P.S. and Klein, R.G., eds., Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, Tucson: University of Arizonia. 1984.

Forces (demographic stochasticity, environmental stochasticity, and reduced genetic diversity) that can drive a species with a population under MVP to extinction are explored in The Call of Distant Mammoths: Why the Ice Age Mammals Disappeared (New York: Copernicus, 1997) by P.D. Ward and in Conservation and Biodiversity, New York: Scientific American Library, 1996 by A. Dobson.

The role of social dysfunction in population extinction is considered in Raup, D., Extinction: Bad Genes or Bad Luck? New York: W.W. Norton, 1991, and R.B. Primack, Essentials of Conservation Biology, Sunderland, MA.: Sinauer Associates, 1993.

Alfred Wallace's concerns over biodiversity loss in Indonesia during the late 19th century can be found in his classic Island Life (1881) (reprint edition (December 1997) Prometheus Books).

Holdgate (Holdgate, M., "The Ecological Significance of Biological Diversity," Ambio Vol. 25 No. 6, Sept. 1996) notes that only 724 species have been recorded as going extinct since 1600, but explains actual extinction rates are acutally considerably higher given our relative ignorance of the number of species and inter-relationships between species.

In his article "The Big Goodbye" (Outside, November 1981) D. Quammen articulates that the intricate relationships between species may result in the extinction of a large number of species.

E.O. Wilson laments the loss of biological diversity in The Diversity of Life. (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1992) noting that as each species is lost, a unique combination of genes - which has been produced over the course of millions of year - also disappears.

Norman Myers popularized the subject of the current extinction wave in The Sinking Ark. A New Look at the Problem of Disappearing Species, New York: Pergamon, 1979.

In his book The Future Eaters (New York: Braziller 1995.) T.F. Flannery provides a fine overview of ancient man's impact on the ecology and environment of Australia. He holds mankind largely responsible for the extinction of Australia's megafauna.
Easter Island

In his article "Easter's End" (Discover. Vol. 16, No. 8, Aug 1995) Jared Diamond evinces that the social collpase of Easter Island may be tied to its ecological degradation and subsequent impoverishment. This interesting and very readable article provides the substance for the text box on "Historical Consequences of Deforestation: Easter Island."

Steadman, D. W. ("Extinction of Birds un Eastern Polynesia: A review of the record, and comparisons with other Pacific Island groups," Journal of Archaeological Sciences, 16:177-205, 1989. From Biodiversity II, Reaka-Kudla, Wilson, Wilson, eds., Washington D.C.: Joseph Henry Press 1997). notes that only one of the original 22 species of seabird still nests on Easter Island.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from mongabay.com operations (server, data transfer, travel) are mitigated through an association with Anthrotect,
an organization working with Afro-indigenous and Embera communities to protect forests in Colombia's Darien region.Anthrotect is protecting the habitat of mongabay's mascot: the scale-crested pygmy tyrant.

"Rainforest" is used interchangeably with "rain forest" on this site. "Jungle" is generally not used.